Feed and adjustment for textile machines



mmh 31. 192s.

H. D. COLMAN FEED AND AnJUs'ruEN'r FORTEXTILE llAcHINBs SIShnts-Shes't 1 www www NNE Q mmh 31,1925.l 1,531,13677.

H. D. coLMAN.

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Patented Mar. 31, 1925..

UNITED STATES PATENT oFElcE.l

HOWARD D. COLMAN, or nocKEoRnTLLTNoIs, AssIeNoR, EY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

TLLINOIS.

FEED .AND ADJUSTMENT Application led April 7.

To all whom t may cof/wem:

Be it known that l, HowAnD D. COLMAN,

a citizenofi. the United States, residing at Rockford, in the county of Winnebago and State of lllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFeeds and Adjustments for Textile Machines, of which the following is a specification.

In 4warp-uniting machines heretofore invented by me, the travel of the thread-selecting and uniting mechanism has been automatically controlled in accordance with the spacing of the threads of the new warp, and mechanism has been provided to feed the old warp to the thread-selecting mechanism to the extent necessitated by localized irregularities in the spacing of the old warp threads vand by thedifierence between the widths of the two warps.

The object of this invention, in so far as it refers to warp-uniting machines, is to obviate the necessity of providing automatic mechanism for feeding the old warp. This object has been attained by expanding lthe narrower warp until its width is approximately equal to that of the other warp, such expansion being effected prior to operation .of the thread-selecting and uniting mechanism, by making the mechanism lthatconi trois the feed for the selecting and uniting mechanism sensitive to the presence lof threads in either warp, and by providing manual means for adjusting one of the warps to correct for those variations in spacing which the feed-controlling mechanism and the thread-selecting mechanism are unable to take care of.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a fragmental side elevation of a warpuniting machine embodying the features of my invention, the thread-selecting and uniting mechanism being omitted. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken in the plane of dotted line 2-2 of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional View takenin the plane of line 3 3 of Fig. 41. F ig. 4 is a side elevation of the main carriage, some of the mechanism thereon being omitted.y

lVhile the invention is susceptible of embodiment in widely different structures, it isV herein shown as embodied in a machine generically similar to the one shown inPatent No. 1,079,470v granted to me on November 25, 1913.

Eon TEXTILE M ACHTNES.

191s. semi No. 288,177.. p

1 is a. bed upon which aremounted rails 3, 4, o, and 6 to support a warp carriage 11.l Said carriage is provided with a roller i 7f to restjupon thefrail 3, a foot S'which lits slidably upon the grooved yrail 4,21. roller 9 that rests-upon the-rail 5, and a foot 10 that bears upon the grooved rail 6. The new warp is supported `upon thebed 1 by 'means of. two clamps 16 and 17. f These c lampsmay be of any suitable construction, as, for example, that fully described in my said Patent No. 1,079,470. Any suitable -construction may be employedA to stretch the new warp after it has Abeen clamped; if desired. the clamp 17 may *be made vmovable toward and awayfrom the clamp 16 as fully explained in 'said patent.

Intermediate the .clamps 16 and 17 the new warp 'extends over a serrated metallic bar 19 which may be operated as described in said patent to deiiectvthe threads from a straight line joining the ltwo clamps.

The warp carriage 11 for the old warp `i's provided with similarclamps22 and 23 and a serrated bar 2,4, the old warp -being clamped, stretched and deflected as inthe case of the new warp. vBefore the old warp is clamped, its width is increased to approximately that ofthe new warp vby means of an expansion comb or other suitable means.

' The warp-tying mechanismfis supported upon a main carriage 51 which is mounted to slide longitudinally, ofthe bed 1. The motive power for driving the mechanism andfeeding thel carriage 51 along the bed has been omitted from the drawings, as it may be similary to that shown in my said patent or of any other suitable character.

Upon a standard 95v fixed to the 'carriage 51 is pivotally mounted a.v lever 97 carrying at itsforward end. a pinion 99 adapted to mesh with a rack bar 12 rigidly supported upon and extending longitudinally of the bed 1. lThe lpinion'99 is lintermittently ro` tated according to the necessities ofthe work by any suitable means, as, forexample, that fully illustrated and described in said patent. Said means includesv a feeding pawl 100 carried upon an. arm: 101 which is pivotally supported upon the axis of the pinion 99. The pawl 100 is in contact with a ratchet wheel-.103 which is rigidly .con-

y nected to thel pinion 99.V An arm 101a, which y is rigid with the arm 101, engaged b a projection 102 on a selector lever 118. he lever 11S is pivoted on the standard 95. The means for pivotally moving the lever 11.8 mav be of *any `suitable nature, as, for eX- ample, that fully disclosed in said patent. When the lever 118 moves upwardly the pawl 100 is moved in the direction to turn the ratchet wheel 103 and the pinion 99. When the lever 11S swings downwardly a spring 104 tends to restore the pawl 100 to initial position. Such restoring movement partially prevented whenever warp threads are in position to be operated upon, by reason of the engagement of the rear end oi an arm 105 of a feed-controlling lever 106 with a stud 107 upon .the arm 101.

The feed-controlling lever 106 is of such form as to be adapted to make contact with the foremost thread of both warps. In the embodiment herein shown the upper portion of the lever 106 is' curved (see Fig. 3) to extend through the space between the thread-deflecting bars 19 and 24. At the outer side of said bars 19 and 24 the' lever 106 is provided with a yoke-shape portio-n 106qv (Fig. 4). As shown in Fig. 3, the end of the nger 106" of saidyolre-sha'pe portion lies in the plane ot the new warp, while the end oi the linger 106C of said yoke-shape portionis in the plane of the old warp.

A tension spring 106d (Fig. 4) normally holds one or both of the lingers 106b and 106c in contact withthe foremost thread of the respective warp or warps. The extreme limits of movement of the lever 106 are determined by stop portions 105@ between which the arm 105 is yarranged to swing.

The warp threads. may be freed from engagement with the. serrated detlecting bars 19 and 24 and carried into position to- .be operated upon by succeeding mechanisms by any suitable selecting means. Preferably the selecting means is of such character vthat the foremost thread need not lie in an invariable position with relation to the selector. This condition is 'fulfilled in the selecting neans fully illustrated and described in said Patent No. 1,079,470, and hence that form of selecting means has been chosen for illustration in the drawings of the present application. The selectors 116 are Lcarried bythe selector levers 118 and 118?. By suitable means, such, for instance, as that shown in said patent, the levers v118 and 118E1 are caused to move toward and away from each other', thereby reciprocating-the selectors 116 across the planes of the warps. As fully described in said patent, each selector 116 `is yieldingly pressed against the foremost thread of its warp.

Means is provided for adjusting the position oil the warp carriage 11 from time to time, in order that the selectors 116 shall be able to select threads from both warps. The

operator might soadj/ust the warp carriage by taking hold of any convenient portion of the carriage and shifting the carriage slightly upon the rails 3, 4, 5, and 6. Inasmuch, however, as 'the extent of adjusting movement necessary at any given time is very small, it is preferable to provide manu-- ally-operable means by which they movement imparted by the operator to the hand-engaged element is reduced in transmission to the carriage 11. While any suitable construction may be employed, that herein shown consists of a rod 250 intended to be grasped by the operator, said rod extending along the side of the bed 1 and being supported at its ends by means of arms 251 and *252. yThe arm 251 is p-ivoted toa portion rigid with the bed 1, while the arm 252 is pivoted at 253 to the side of the rail 5. Rigid witlh the arm 252 is a relatively short arm 254. A lever 255 is pivoted between its ends to the upper end of the arm 254. One arm of the lever 255 carries an upwardly extending tooth 256 adapted to engage the lower kside of a short rack-bar 257 fixed to the clamp 23. The other Aarm of the `lever 255 carries a weight 258 that normally holds the tooth 256 in engagement with thev rack 257. 259 is a stop rising from the rail 5 and underlying the weight 258, said stop serving to limit the upward move- Ament of the tooth 256 when the warp carriage 11 is lifted off its Supporting rails.

The operation is as Jfollows: Thema-in carriage 51 being at the left-hand end of the bed 1 as viewed in Fig. 1, and the warp carriage 11 having been lifted oil' the rails 8, 4, 5, and 6, the new warp is secured in the clamps 16 and 17 and properly tensioned and deflected. A portion of the old warp which is to be tied to the new warp is eX- panded until its width is made as nearly equal to the width of the new warp as is conveniently practicable. The old warp is thensecured in the warp carriage 11, and

the carriage placed upon its vsu.p1porting,

rails. The tooth r256 engages the rack bar 257 as the carriage descends onto the supporting rails. The carriage 11 is then shitted until the foremost (eXtreme left-hand) thread of the old warp is approximately in the vertical plane of the foremost thread of the new warp. The friction of the parts 7,'8, 9 and 10 upon the rails 3, 4, 5, and 6 suflices to hold thecarriage 11 rin adjusted position. If desired, the tooth 256 may be shifted into engagement with another tooth of the raclr 257 after the carriage 11 has been initially adjusted upon its rails, so that the lever 2,52 may hang in approximately vertical position.

The carriage 51 having been advanced until the selectors 116' are in engagement with the threads, power is communicated to the mechanisms on said carriage. In the reciprocation of the selectors 116 one thread from each warp is selected, after which the selected threads are severed and further separated or set off from their respective wai-ps and carried to the knot-tying mechanism (not shown). rlhe portion 106a is in the form of a bow or yoke in order to prevent interference of the lever 106 with the selected threads4 as the latter are moved to the lrnotter (i. e. toward the right, Fig. 4). As warp threads are selected and moved out of the planes of the warps, the lever 106` moves under the action of the spring'106d so as vto keep the fingers 106b and 106e (or'one of them) in contact with one or both of the warps. W hen a sufficient number of threads have been selected so that the end of the arm 105 is above the path of movement of the stud 107, the pawl 100 will be' enabled to turn the ratchet wheel 103 and the pinion 99, thereby causing the carriage 51 to be moved toward the warps until the pressure of the vvarps or one of them against the fingers 106b and 106c again causes theA arm 105 to be placed in the path of movement of the stud 107.

It will be seenv that the mechanism for advancing the carriage 51 will be held out of action as long as there is a thread in position to be taken from either warp. 1f the supply of threads accessible to one selector should become exhausted while there is still a thread of the other warp holding the feed mechanism from action, said selector will malte as many attempts to take a thread as is permitted by the try again mechanism, after which the machine will be automatically stopped. The operator will then note which selector has failed to take a thread and will adjust the warp carriage' 11 by means of the rod 250 in the proper direction. rEhus, if the old-warp selector is unable to reach a thread, the operator moves the warp carriage 1l toward the selector; if it is the new-warp selector that has failed to obtain a thread the operator moves the warp carriage 11 away from the selecting mechanism. The carriage 11 having been thus adjusted, the mechanism is restarted; and if the warp carriage 11 has been moved away from the selecting mechanism, the feeding mechanism will advance the carriage 51 to enable the selectors to take threads from both warps.

It will be seen that the operator need not continually observe the operation of the selectors, as the machine will be automatically thrown out of operation when adjustment of the warp carriage 11 becomes necessary.

It is believed that the foregoing will so fully explain the gist of this invention that others can readily adapt it to various types of machines without omitting those features which, from the standpoint of the prior art, constitute essential characteristics of theinvention. All such adaptations are intended to be included Within themeaning'and range of equivalency of the following claims.

Certain features of the construction herein shown are claimed generically in my copending application Serial No. 208,779, filed May 19, 1904. (Patent No.A 1,442,776, dated .l anuai'y 1 6, 1923.)

I claim as my invention:

1. A textile machine having, in combination, mechanism for operating upon a plurality of series of elements, mechanism to feed said operating mechanism past said series of elements, and an element operated by all of saidv series of elements for con-` trolling said feeding mechanism.

2. A warp-uniting vmachine having, in combination, means for supporting a warp; a carriage for supportinganother warp; a hand-operable element extending longitudinally of the machine; a lever connected to said element; a second lever pivoted to the first lever and provided with a tooth; a rack on the carriage for engagement by the said tooth and means for normally holding said tooth in engagement with the rack.

8. A textile machine having, in combination, independent supports for a plurality of series of elements to be voperated upon, mechanism to operate upon said elements, mechanism to cause a relative feed-movement between said mechanism and said supports, and an element operated by all of said elements for controlling said feeding mechanism. v i

4. A warp-uniting` machinel having, in combination means for supporting a warp; a reciprocable carriage for supporting another warp; a longitudinally reciprocable hand-rod extending longitudinally of the machine, and movement-reducing means connecting the rod to the warp carriage toV impart to the carriage longitudinal `movement in either direction.y A

5. A warp-uniting machine having, in

combination, two warp supports adjustable vwith relation to each other; a thread-selecting mechanism; and means sensitive to either or both warps for feeding said threadselecting mechanism.

6. A warp-uniting machine having,` in combination, two warp supports, a threadselecting mechanism; means for feeding said thread-selecting mechanism transversely of the warps; and means sensitive to either or both warps for controlling said feeding means.

7. A mechanism for uniting two warps having, in combination, feeding means and a member to control said feeding means, said member having two fingers, each adapted to engage one of the Wai-ps.l

S. A mechanism for uniting two Warpsl having, in combination, means to feed said mechanism and two fingers to control said feeding means, each of said fingers being adapted to engage one of the warps.

9. ln a warp-,uniting machine, means for supporting twov warps in approximately parallel planes; tivo bars, thethreads of each warp extending across one of said bars; a carriage; thread-selecting mechanism on said carriage; means for feeding the carriage; and means to control the feeding means, said controlling means including a lever having its upper portion curved to extend through the space between said bars, and a yoke-shape portion on the end of said curved portion, the @nos of the branches of said yoke-shape portion constituting fingers to engage the foremost threads of the warps.

l0. A warp-Lmiting machine having, in combii'iation, thread-selecting mechanism, means for supporting two warps, a single feeding mechanism for causing relative movement lfietween the selecting mechanism vand the warps, and thread-operated means sensitive to both wai-ps forcontrolling said feeding mechanism.

ll. ln a .warp-uniting n'iachine, a feedcontrolling lever havingl two warp-threadengaging fingers.

i2. ln a warp-uniting machine, a feedcontrolling lever having a yoke-shape portion, the ends of the branches of said yokeshape portion constituting' thread-engaging ifingers. y

13. A textile machine having, in combination, mechanism for operating upon a plurality of series of elements, a single feeding mechanism for producing' relative movement between the operating mechanism and said elements, and devices operated by all of said series ofl elements for-controlling said feeding mechanism.

14. A machine for uniting two unleased neiyee War-ps having irregularly spaced threads, said machine having, in combination, supports for two such warps, two selectors, one for each warp, each selector being yieldingly mounted and pressed toward its warp to compensate for irregular spacing of the threads, a support for thel selectors, means for causing relative feed movement between the selector support and the Warp supports, means sensitiveto both ivarps rfor controlling said feeding means, and means for adjusting one of the warp supports towardz and away from the selector for` that warp.

l5. yThe method of uniting ,a new warp and an old warp which consists in expanding the old warp approximatelyto the Widthof the new warp, traversing a uniting mechanism past the warps to causel said mechanism to operate on the warps, controlling the travel of said mechanism according to the position of the foremost thread of either warp, and adjusting the positionl of the old warp toward and awayv from the uniting mechanism when necessary to bring` the foremost thread of the old warp into approximate register with the foremost thread of the new warp.

16. A machine for operating upon warp threads having, in combination, aV support for a series of warp threads, av support for another series of elements, said two .series being of approximately the samev width manual means for causing relative movement between said supports, a mechanism for acting. upon said threads and elements, and means sensitive to the presence of said threads and elements for feeding said mechanism relatively to said series.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.V

HOVARD D. COLMAN.

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